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Linux distribution Fedora 10 (Cambridge) released

After just over six months of development time and following delays caused by the server infrastructure break-in, the Fedora project has now released version 10 of the Fedora Linux distribution, codenamed "Cambridge". Thanks to kernel-based mode-setting and the new Plymouth graphical-bootup program, the new distribution promises to deliver not only a faster, but also a more visually-pleasing startup sequence.

The distribution offers a comprehensive, state-of-the-art software range including GNOME 2.24.1, KDE 4.1.2, OpenOffice 3.0, Firefox 3.0.4, Linux 2.6.27.5, X.org X Server 1.5.3, Glibc 2.9, and RPM 4.6. Incorporating features like the "glitch-free" version of PulseAudio, the new Sectool security audit and intrusion detection tool, the series 0.3 PackageKit framework, extended printer configuration software and a version of NetworkManager that supports ad hoc networks and connection sharing, Fedora 10 offers numerous additional new features that will probably also be incorporated by other distributors in the near future.

heise Open Source UK will be bringing you a full review of Fedora 10 on Friday, discussing these and many other new features of the tenth version of Fedora in detail.

The article "Red Hat Fedora Claims It's the Leader in Linux" released by Internetnews last Friday caused quite a stir. The article quotes Paul W. Frields, leader of the Fedora project, who provided some usage statistics that the Fedora Project had generated based upon requesting IP addresses. Although Frields did point out earlier that there are no reliable figures relating to the number of Fedora users, the article concludes that there are more Fedora users than Ubuntu users. Frields doesn't seem to be pleased with this interpretation: in a long email to a public mailing list, he points out the dangers of this type of statistic and emphasises that he doesn't perceive any competition between the various distributions: "People often like to position Linux distributions as being in competition, which I believe somewhat obscures the commonalities of free software communities and especially Fedora's goal of advancing free software."

While Fedora 10 is unleashed on users this week, the developers are already busily working on Fedora 11, which will not arrive in late April/early May like the usual spring releases. This time, it will take about a month longer, according to a schedule proposal that has now been accepted. The delay is to allow developers a little more time to complete the distribution whose components, according to the proposal, are to become the basis for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. The Fedora project has already scheduled some features for integration into Fedora 11; they include the switch to the Hal successor DeviceKit, DeltaRPMs with Presto, multiseat support, a cross-compiler for Windows and simplified volume control.

Such delays aren't unpredented – the first Long Term Support release of Ubuntu Linux, version 6.06, was release in June 2006 rather than April as per the usual release schedule. The two-month delay was allowed to give developers slightly longer to assemble a stable product that they could support for several years to come.